Time to Get Real on Realignment

By PAIGE A. LEECH

Feb. 16, 1997 12 AM PT

The league realignment proposals for the Northern Area of the CIF-Southern Section are causing quite a stir among local Ventura County school administrators and for good reason: It’s time to protect your own interests.

Somebody is bound to be unhappy about the way the realignment, which is done every four years, will effect his or her school from September 1998 through June 2002 because history has a way of repeating itself.

Several proposals have been submitted in recent months, according to Linda Janzen, Paso Robles High principal and chairperson of the Northern Area realignment committee. On March 6, 55 schools will vote on the final proposal to be submitted to the Southern Section on March 18.

Among the possible scenarios is the formation of a new league that would allow the five Oxnard Unified School District schools to leave the Channel and Marmonte leagues and create a league of their own. A new school scheduled to be built in Oxnard by 2000 would join the league.

It’s a great idea, to be sure. In addition to getting three more Ventura County schools into the playoffs, the Oxnard District League would create natural cross-town rivalries between schools that are all within a 15-mile area. The rivalries would certainly improve gate receipts and the close proximity of league affiliates would cut down on travel.

But the proposal that seems to be causing the most controversy is one that includes all of the above, plus moving Moorpark to the Marmonte League.

Moorpark, which has been growing steadily each year and is tired of traveling up to 45 minutes for Frontier League games against Calabasas and Nordhoff, wants to be in the Marmonte League for many of the same reasons the ‘Oxnard District’ teams want to form their own league.

“It’s a situation that would be easiest on the pocketbook,” Moorpark Principal John McIntosh said. “[And] we have the opportunity to develop some very healthy rivalries with Simi Valley and Royal.”

Who can blame him? Certainly not Frontier League members, who have encouraged Moorpark’s move to another league. By enrollment figures alone, Moorpark, with an enrollment of 1,650, should be competing against schools with similar student populations--namely those schools in the Marmonte League.

McIntosh said Moorpark should be about 2,000 strong in the fall of 1998, nearly twice that of its Frontier League counterparts.

The Channel League would welcome Moorpark with open arms because the addition would make it an even-numbered, six-team league. But Moorpark doesn’t want to go to the Channel League because the Musketeers would be increasing travel times to places like Santa Barbara and Ventura.

“Bottom line is it’s not good for our kids academically [to stay in the Frontier League or move to the Channel],” McIntosh said.

But if Moorpark was accepted by the Marmonte League, it would produce football scheduling headaches for the Marmonte and Channel leagues because both would have an odd number of teams, forcing bye weeks.

“Perhaps it is a scheduling problem, but football is not the only sport,” McIntosh said. “All sports are equally important.”

Exactly. Other leagues which include area teams--such as the Alpha, Golden, Frontier and Tri-Valley--are odd-numbered and seem to get along fine during football season.

Is there a more logical place for Moorpark than the Marmonte League? Not hardly. But logic often has nothing to do with it.

A LOOK AT THE LEAGUES

STATUS QUO

Frontier League:

Calabasas

Malibu

Moorpark

Nordhoff

Santa Clara

Santa Paula

Channel League:

Buena

Dos Pueblos

Hueneme

Oxnard

Rio Mesa

San Marcos

Santa Barbara

Ventura

Marmonte League:

Agoura

Camarllo

Channel Islands

Newbury Park

Royal

Simi Valley

Thousand Oaks

Westlake

POSSIBLE RE-ALIGNMENT

‘Oxnard District:’

Camarillo